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“What? It’s one of his guys,” Charlie grunted back, his hands going to his hips.

“No, it’s not.” I said walking past him and to the door. That shit was a waste of my time.

“It is, look, he’s wearing the uniform.”

Turning back to him, I squinted my eyes. “Really Charlie? For a cop, you can be real dumb sometimes.”

“What the fuck?” he growled, stepping forward.

“He ain’t one of his men. We’ve been watching him for weeks now. There’s four different guys and they take shifts in twos.”

“Yeah, and?”

“I could pick each of their faces out of a thousand different people. He. Ain’t. One. Of. Them.”

Furrowing his brow, he flicked his eyes to the computer and then back to me. “So he ain’t one of them?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Someone is trying to stall the investigation. They’re playing us.”

Charlie stood there, his eyes blazing with anger. “Who would-”

“Fuck if I know, Charlie, but I’ve just pulled a shift watching Daley and all I want right now is food and my bed.”

Spinning around, I walked out the door, through the precinct and straight to my car.

Tomorrow, I’d think of what this meant. But for tonight, I was going home, eating some food with my woman and then going to bed.

Driving home from the preschool, I was too occupied with my thoughts from last night. Ty had come home late with food and we sat and ate while discussing the pros and cons to Eli learning how to box. Discussing it with Ty made it so much easier, and in the end, we came to the conclusion that it would be good for him but we were going to ask Evan to teach him. That way we had control over what he did and didn’t learn.

“What’s that mama?” Eli shouted as we were turning into the road that led to the compound.

“What’s, what, sweetie?”

“That, there!” Looking in the rear view mirror, I tried to see where he was pointing. Turning my head in that direction, I noticed what looked like a big ball of fur. So big, that at first I thought it was a bear, then it lifted its head and I realized that it was a dog.

Pulling over to the side of the road, I sat and watched him as he watched our car.

“Is it a dog, mama?”

“I think so.” I pulled my phone out and found Ty’s name, my eyes not moving from the dog.

“Hey,” he answered.

“Hey, erm…I think we’ve found a stray dog?” I squeaked down the line as the dog moved closer.

“A what?”

“A dog? But it’s like…really big.” I watched as it came even closer, pawing at the door. Unbuckling my belt, I leaned over the seat and met his eyes. They were so sad, and as soon as I saw them, I knew I couldn’t leave him there. Not like this.

He was holding his paw in the air so it was obvious that he was injured.

“Kay? Kay!” Ty shouted down the line, whatever he had said, I hadn’t heard a word of it.

“I’m gonna let him in,” I said to Ty.

“No, Kay don’t-” Pressing the end call button, I turned to Eli and took in his excited face.

“Don’t make any sudden movements or noises,” I said, turning the engine off and pushing my door open, the dog moved back cautiously.